Is it any surprise that the music supervisor for “Stranger Things” finally found their most appropriate song?
That would be Diana Ross singing “Upside Down,” an early 80s disco hit written and produced by Nile Rodgers. After all, the mysterious and dangerous place run by vicious monsters, located underneath Hawkins, Indiana is called The Upside Down. And believe me, it’s no nightclub. (The rest of the soundtrack is a cool 80s throwback, with occasional whisps of Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill.”)
Tonight, Netflix drops the first four episodes of “Stranger Things” final season 5. It’s been a while since Season 4 so the first thing you may notice is that the kids from this Spielbergian adventure look a lot older. They’re still supposed to be playing teens, so suspend your disbelief. At least there are some inside jokes as Winona Ryder’s Joyce is upbraided by son, Will, played by Noah Schnapp, about giving him some freedom. (He’s not a kid anymore.) Also, Will gets to joke about his bowl haircut.
To balance out all these young adults, “Stranger Things” now puts in peril a young girl. That’s Holly Wheeler, sister of Nancy and Mike, played by a recast Nell Fisher. Holly is supposed to be about 10 in the show but is 14 in reality, and a knockout young actress. Fisher is a find as the new girl in peril, used as a pawn by the evil Vecna in his alien monster takeover of the midwest 1987 town.
Season 5 brings a healthy dose of 1980s trivia including references to the flux capacitor from “Back to the Future” as well as a lot of “ET” and other Spielberg type movies. There’s also the usual dollop of Dungeons and Dragons. But what’s more interesting now is Holly’s reading material, the classic children’s book “A Wrinkle in Time,” which seems to hold answers to the show’s many questions.
The plot of Season 5 — after a surprise opening involving Vecna and Will going back to the very beginning of the series — is that Hawkins is now under military quarantine. The feds are trying to figure out the Upside Down and Vecna but of course, they know nothing. The experts are our gang who’ve been in on it since Day 1.
Ryder’s Joyce and David Harbour’s Hop are now a real couple, although they’re not together a lot. Hop’s scenes are primarily with Millie Bobby Brown’s Eleven, who’s quite mature (more Twenty One, than Eleven) and more confident. The Harbour and Brown scenes will be of much interest since in real life, Brown was said to have filed some kind of complaint against Harbour during shooting. They do have a lot of intense scenes with just the two of them, but on the recent press tour they looked like they’d resolved their differences.
As a “Stranger Things” fan from the beginning in 2016, I will say I was amused watching all these 20 year olds so earnestly invested in the Upside Down and Vecna. They really act like they believe it, which is possible maybe because the production quality is pretty high. The monsters look real and disgusting. The whole atmosphere of the Upside Down is a creative landscape far removed by the safe environs of the pristine Hawkins.
As the first three new episodes that the press received evolve, all the characters are back with the exception of Max, played by Sadie Sink, who was on Broadway beginning last March in “John Proctor is the Villain.” Season 5 reportedly wrapped at the end of last year, but maybe this played a part in Sink not showing up until the end of Episode 3.(She’s shown in coma.) Everyone else is present and now even more sharply drawn including Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin), Maya Hawke (Robin), Finn Wolfhard (Mike), and the romantic triangle of Nancy, Steve, and Jonathan (Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery). Caleb McLaughlin, now 24, as Lucas is really ready for movies.
There are also two other adults of note: Linda Hamilton as an Army doctor up to no good, and Cara Buono reprises her role as the Wheeler mom (she’s very funny).
Will this gang finally defeat evil, seal off the Upside Down, and rid the world of Vecna? You know, probably. Will anyone else perish in the effort? I hope not. Five years from now there will undoubtedly be a reunion show with a new generation of kids and monsters. Until then, “Stranger Things” remains lots of fun and very clever, kind of an American “Harry Potter.”
Netflix is going to show the final episodes in theaters on New Year’s Eve. But they should really have a whole season 5 marathon on the big screen. It’s worth it.
